The War Lord 1965

Chrysagon de la Cruex, portrayed by Charlton Heston, is a Norman knight who is given a Flemish village to rule and protect, with the task of maintaining the goodwill of its people toward his Duke. He and his men ride in to repulse Frisian raiders who leave behind a boy, the son of their leader, who conceals his identity.

In the village, Chrysagon encounters Bronwyn, Rosemary Forsyth, who is being harassed by his own men, and he quickly becomes drawn to the woman he has rescued. As time passes, the bond between them deepens, and he finds himself falling for her despite the duties of his position.

Odins, the village chief, asks Chrysagon for permission for Bronwyn to marry Odins’ son Marc, whom Bronwyn has been betrothed to since childhood. James Farentino brings a sense of duty and pressure to the situation, and Chrysagon initially approves the match, only to soon regret it as his own feelings pull him toward Bronwyn.

A shadow from the past surfaces as the film reveals that the pagan practice of droit du seigneur, though condemned by the church, still lingers. Bronwyn and Marc are married in church, and later celebrate in a riotous pagan ceremony. Chrysagon appears at the latter to claim the lord’s right to sleep with a virgin on her wedding night, a controversial ritual that confronts tradition and consent.

Odins declares that Chrysagon has the right, but insists that all must be done according to the ancient ways, which center on the sacrifice of a virgin to ensure harvests. Chrysagon, faced with a moral precipice, agrees to the Druid ritual: a ring of fire set on a high place, his men standing in armor while “wearing iron,” Bronwyn to be brought at moonrise and reclaimed at sunrise.

A torchlit procession leads Bronwyn toward the keep as Odins confesses his love for her, a confession she reciprocates. He comforts his son, and the moment of truth arrives as Bronwyn and Chrysagon witness the sunrise. Chrysagon places his father’s ring on Bronwyn’s hand and vows he will not give her up, despite the complexities of duty and desire.

Marc concedes that Chrysagon did hold the right, but the villagers remain outraged when Bronwyn is not returned. They misread her choice, believing she is being forced, unaware that she remains there of her own free will.

The village sends Marc to reach the Frisians with evidence that the boy is alive. Bronwyn and Chrysagon watch from the keep as he speaks of carrying her away once his obligation to the Duke is fulfilled. They glimpse the Frisians hacking at the drawbridge and sound the alarm, and Chrysagon descends to fight the intruders, clad only in his braies.

The siege intensifies as the Friesians and villagers struggle to defend the keep. They call for the boy, and Draco arrives with demands for ransom. He leaves, perhaps seeking reinforcements.

The attackers bring a battering ram, but Bors slides down to retrieve the anchor of a boat and uses it to overturn the ram into the moat. That night, sheltered behind hurdles, the defenders repel the assault with hot oil, burning the drawbridge.

A siege tower rises, and the attackers plan to breach the keep’s summit with a bridge that could carry them to the top. Suddenly, rocks and fireballs descend from the sky—the work of Draco, returning with aid from the Duke, along with a catapult and more force. Draco falls to Chrysagon in combat, dying in the struggle.

With the threat momentarily checked, Chrysagon escorts the boy to the Frisian camp. The Frisian leader offers sanctuary for Bronwyn, whom Chrysagon nicknames “my lady,” but Chrysagon still hopes to mend things with the Duke for the villagers’ sake. Yet tragedy interrupts his plans when Marc, leaping from a high tree with a sickle, wounds Chrysagon and races toward Bronwyn; Bors stops him, and Marc is fatally impaled on a tree branch.

In the end, Chrysagon entrusts the fief to one of his men and rides away with his wounds and a resolve to seek a better future for the people he defended, the two sides left to reckon with the costs of power, love, and loyalty.